Senate OKs major changes to Michigan’s ballot initiative process

Updated Dec 21, 2018; Posted Dec 21, 2018

Joel Bissell | MLive.com

A bill passed by the House would put new requirements in place for a ballot petition to gather signatures and be placed on the ballot. Pictured are voting booths at First United Methodist Church of Kalamazoo, in Kalamazoo, Michigan on midterm election day, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018.

LANSING, MI -- A revised version of legislation that would set significant restrictions on citizen-led ballot initiatives cleared the Michigan Senate Friday over opposition from Democrats.

The most significant change in House Bill 6595 would prevent organizers of a citizen-led ballot initiative from getting more than 15 percent of their signatures required for ballot from any one congressional district. Other changes include requiring a 100-word summary of the proposal for voters to review upon signing and requiring signature circulators to file signed affidavits indicating whether they’re volunteering or getting paid for their time. Circulators who misrepresent themselves under the legislation would be subject to a misdemeanor penalty.

Sen. Steve Bieda, D-Warren, said the bill was a “power grab” in reaction to recent initiatives that saw success on the ballot.

“You’re trying to pass this bill because you don’t like how Michiganders voted. It’s almost six in the morning and we’re dealing with this,” Bieda said.

Supporters of the legislation point to it including more Michigan residents earlier in the ballot initiative process.

Rep. James Lower, R-Cedar Lake, sponsored the bill and said recently the changes would provide “more transparency, more accountability, more input from voters prior to an initiative being placed on the ballot.”

“I think it’s fairly straightforward in nature,” he told senators Wednesday when explaining his legislation, likening his plan to the signature-gathering process for U.S. Senate and gubernatorial candidates.

A number of changes to the bill were swapped in by the Senate, including requiring whoever submits the petitions to submit an estimate in writing of the number of signatures being submitted per Congressional district and slightly changing the 100-word summary requirements on petitions to mirror current law at the ballot box.

Critics likened the plan to voter disenfranchisement that would make it all but impossible to succeed in getting a citizen petition on the ballot. During a Senate Elections and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, backers of both liberal and conservative-leaning ballot initiatives came forward to urge senators to oppose it.

Ed Rivet, who previously worked for Right to Life and worked on several successful petition campaigns, said in committee earlier this week he liked certain aspects of the bill, questioned the constitutionality of the 15 percent cutoff: “I don’t think our voices should be silenced within a district.”

During committee, Sen. Morris Hood, D-Detroit, questioned the logic of requiring a percentage cap of voters without taking population into consideration, asking a supporter of the bill: “If you have 1 million people over here, 15 people over here, should both of those areas be counted equally?”